Okay, so today I decided to mess around with the I Ching, specifically hexagram 28, “Ta Kuo” or “Preponderance of the Great.” I’ve been meaning to get back into this practice, and this felt like a good day to do it.
Getting Started
First, I grabbed my three coins. You can use any coins, really, but I have these old Chinese coins I like to use. Makes it feel a bit more… authentic, I guess. I cleared my mind a bit – or at least tried to – and focused on a general question about my current work situation. Nothing too specific, just a “what’s the overall vibe right now?” kind of thing.
The Tosses
Then came the coin tossing. Six times, you toss the coins and note whether you get heads or tails. Heads is 3, tails is 2. You add them up for each toss, and that gives you a number – 6, 7, 8, or 9. That number determines whether the line is solid (yang) or broken (yin), and whether it’s changing or not. Here’s how my tosses went:
- Toss 1: Heads, Heads, Tails (3 + 3 + 2 = 8) – Broken, unchanging
- Toss 2: Heads, Heads, Heads (3 + 3 + 3 = 9) – Solid, changing
- Toss 3: Heads, Tails, Tails (3 + 2 + 2 = 7) – Solid, unchanging
- Toss 4: Heads, Heads, Heads (3+3+3=9) – Solid, changing
- Toss 5: Heads, Heads, Heads (3+3+3=9) – Solid, changing
- Toss 6: Heads, Tails, Tails (3+2+2=7)- Solid, unchanging
Building the Hexagram
I drew out the lines, starting from the bottom and working my way up. So, based on my tosses, I ended up with a broken line at the bottom, then a solid changing line, three solid unchanging lines, and another solid changing line, then one solid unchaging line on the top. That’s hexagram 28, with changing lines in the second and fifth places.
Interpreting the Reading
Hexagram 28, Ta Kuo, is all about a situation that’s overloaded, like a ridgepole sagging under too much weight. It’s a time of stress and potential collapse.
Because I had those two changing lines, the hexagram will be changed to hexagram 43 after the changing.
I’m still chewing on what it all means for my work situation. It feels like a confirmation of some of the stress I’ve been feeling, and there might some breakthroughs at the same time.
It’s definitely something I’ll keep pondering on. I’m not taking it as a direct prediction or anything, but more like a… weather report for my inner state and the energies around me.
